Kohala Coast, Hawai’i – Bartley Forrester fired his second consecutive 67 Friday, while Christo Lamprecht shot a matching 67 and Hiroshi Tai added a 68, leading No. 12 Georgia Tech to a 15-under-par team score of 273 to tie for seventh place after 36 holes of the Amer Ari Intercollegiate.
The Yellow Jackets, with a two-round total of 549 (-27), bettered their Thursday total by three strokes and gained one spot on the leaderboard, but find themselves 19 strokes behind No. 2 North Carolina (530, -46) as the Mauna Lani North Course continued to surrender low scores. Eighty-one of the 122 players in the field are under par through 36 holes, as are 17 of the 20 teams.
The tournament concludes Saturday with another shotgun start for round 3 at 7:30 a.m. local time (12:30 p.m. Eastern time).
TECH LINEUP – Forrester, a senior from Gainesville, Ga., has bogeyed one hole out of 36 this weekend, adding six birdies in his Friday round to pace the Jackets. His 10-under-par 134 total is tied for 12th place with five others.
Lamprecht, the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world, went 3-under-par over his last six holes for his 67 Friday, and the senior from George, South Africa is tied for 23rd place at 8-under-par 136. Tai shot his second consecutive 68 Friday, stringing together four straight birdies at one point in his round, and the sophomore from Singapore also is tied for 23rd at 136.
Freshman Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) added a 1-under-par 71 to the Jackets’ team total Friday, while fellow freshman Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) carded a 74 and did not count.
Senior Aidan Kramer (Oviedo, Fla.), playing as an individual, was under par for the second straight day with a 71 and is tied for 59th place at 3-under-par 141.
Bartley Forrester has shot two rounds of 67 and is tied for 12th place. (photo by Tim Cowie)
TEAM LEADERBOARD – No. 2-ranked North Carolina continued to roll, getting a pair of 66s and a pair of 68s for a 20-under-par score of 268 Friday, and the Tar Heels have a 36-hole total of 530 (-46). They are three strokes ahead of top-ranked Auburn and No. 7 Arizona State, each at 533 (-43).
No. 4 Washington (538, -38), No. 22 Texas Tech (539, -37) and No. 42 Oklahoma State (544, -32) are also ahead of the Tech on the leaderboard. The Jackets are tied with Stanford at 549 (-27).
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Arizona State’s Wenyi Ding has shot rounds of 63-64 and sits at the top of the individual leaderboard at 17-under-par 127, three strokes ahead of Jackson Koivin of Auburn and Finn Koelle of Washington (130, -14).
Texas Tech’s Matthew Comegys (131, -13) is alone in fourth place, while North Carolina’s David Ford (132, -12) holds the fifth position.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – Georgia Tech has played in the Amer Ari Intercollegiate every year since 1999, with the exception of the 2015. The 33rd annual event, which runs Thursday through Saturday, is a traditional collegiate 54-hole, 5-count-4 stroke-play tournament. The event will be contested at the Mauna Lani Golf Resort (par-72 North Course) on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island of Hawai’i, the second time the event has been held at the venue.
The Yellow Jackets have won this event five times, all between 1999 and 2006, and six Yellow Jackets have won or shared the individual title, including Carlton Forrester (shared title in 1999), Matt Kuchar (shared title in 1999 and 2000), Bryce Molder (shared title in 2000), Troy Matteson (2002) and Cameron Tringale (2006). Tech finished in seventh place among 19 teams last year.
The 20-team field is loaded with nine teams ranked in the current NCAA Golf top-25, and 13 of the top 50, including (with ranking) top-ranked Auburn, No. 2 North Carolina, No. 4 Washington, No. 7 Arizona State, No. 11 Georgia Tech, No. 12 Florida State, No. 16 Texas, No. 18 Oregon, No. 22 Texas Tech, No. 31 UCLA, No. 42 Oklahoma State, No. 46 Oregon State, No. 49 San Jose State.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of the development of Yellow Jackets that thrive academically at the Institute and compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes. To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH GOLF
Georgia Tech’s golf team is in its 29th year under head coach Bruce Heppler, having won 72 tournaments in his tenure. Heppler is the 10th-longest-tenured head coach in Division I men’s golf. The Yellow Jackets have won 19 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 33 appearances in the NCAA Championship and been the national runner-up five times. Connect with Georgia Tech Golf on social media by liking their Facebook page, or following on Twitter (@GTGolf) and Instagram. For more information on Tech golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com.
